Four years ago today, macosxhints.com was born with a simple site news announcement on the evening of its first day of existence, followed by the first six hints the next evening. A look at some assorted statistics will show where we've gone in that time...

8,753,612 characters (1,414,124 of which were spaces!) have been typed or edited by yours truly, organized into...

1,332,576 separate words, which are distributed across...

6,276 hints! That's an average of 4.3 hints per day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. But since I usually don't post on the weekends, it's actually about 6.3 hints per work day.

913 of the hints are under my name; 1,305 are from anonymous tipsters. That leaves 4,058 hints that have been written by 2,501 separate authors! Our most-prolific singularly identifiable author is bluehz, with 38 hints in the system. bluehz's first hint was in November of 2001, with the most recent hint appearing just last week -- thanks, blue!

46,997 users have registered for free accounts.

45,788 total comments have been posted, or about 45 per workday. We're not Slashdot in the comment volume department, but the comments that are posted reveal the audience here to be knowledgeable, friendly, and very very bright!

345,752 daily page views from all of you (and another 52,712 on the forum site), totalling...

6.34GB of data transferred each day (plus another 2.0GB for the forums). To put that in perspective, when we first launched, a busy month was 2.0GB!

So I'd just like to take this time to say Thank You to the members of the community. You've all helped make macosxhints.com an amazingly useful resource, and it's clearly the #1 spot on the web for "inside info" on getting the most out of OS X. You have my word that, for as long as my family is willing and I am able, I'll do my best to keep it that way (with some minor enhancements along the way, of course!). The caliber of the community is what drives me to spend the time I do on the site and email every day ... you folks are truly amazing!

Now, help yourself to the cake and ice cream, and then get back to work!

When i first started using Os X in Jan of 2001, moving from windows, this is one of the first sites i visited every day to get into the Mac scene. It proablly even helped my desicion to switch to a Mac. I loved that there was a simple but super informative hint and tip site on how to be a power user and get the most out of the OS. I'm the guy that loves what you can with a product that ISN"T on the bulleted list on the back of the box.

I've done my part and submitted a ton of hints and even had some appear in your books. This site has done an amazing job in gathering the Mac community togther, and is easily in the top 5 Mac Community sites. That makes you a staple Rob. You've done a great job.

Wow, 4 years already. Well congrats Rob! I can really appeciate the effort you put into this, and it shows. This site filled a much needed void in the early days of OS X and has blossomed to become one of the best Mac resources (and communities) on the net. Good work!

Even though I am not new to Macs, I have learned a lot about OSX from this site. This is the first site which I come to for any help before going to other places as I know some one here would have figured it out already.

Congrats and thanks to you Rob for maintaining and keeping this site the BEST!
Cheers!!!

Rob,
In early 2001 as I moved forward to OS X, the first and most important thing I read was your "The Mac OSX Solutions Handbook." I loved it and have visited your Hints site almost every day since. I also purchased your first Hints book. Congratulations. I happily say, "Four more years." :-)

Congratulations on the milestone! The site has become a place I check a couple of times a day, and I often find hints that make me say "Hey -- that's just what I wanted to do -- now I know how!" Even though every hint may not be for everyone, there's such a wealth of information that makes this a great resource!

Congratulations on achieving this milestone. MacOSX Hints' importance as a forum for exchanging ideas between those that know stuff and those who need to know cannot be underestimated. Sometimes it's very clever stuff, other times it's so damn obvious when you actually stop to take a look...but whatever it is, everyone's and every one's a winner! Keep up the good work!

Congrats! For me at least, this site has made the transition from OS9 to X much easier- even fun. Like others, this site is one of a small handful that I have in an Auto-Tab to view daily. Although I already know most of the hints, I support this site by buying Rob's books, and would encourage everyone here to do the same (I still find hints in the books that have some how escaped my diligence!)
Cheers!
Dave :D